R.A. Gudino - Aspiring Writer

Thursday, May 23, 2013

Online Identity Custodians

This is a great article for every mommy blogger. At one point, I had decided to write less about my son for these very reasons, but I have drifted away from my intentions. These were my two wake-up calls:

"Does it record a negative sentiment that an adult would recognize as fleeting but an adolescent might not?"

"Let everything you share with those outside your home strengthen the bond of trust you have within it. Tell your story without compromising theirs."

I think another principle is to keep it contained. This blog or my facebook (which I don't use much), can be made private or deleted. Don't have various accounts everywhere that you may not remember later. That's my advice to myself.

The author, Jen Wilkin, recommends to "T-H-I-N-K: Is what I have to say True, Helpful, Inspiring, Necessary, or Kind?"

I do ask myself if it's true. But none of my blog could really be considered necessary. Helpful? To me, to put things in perspective. Inspiring? Probably not ever, unless you're my mom. Kind? I could work on that for sure, on my blog and in real life. I would also recommend factual vs. overly emotional (at least when it's negative), along with pretending that someone else wrote it about you. Would I mind? Avoid labels that might stick.

Overall, if my son and daughter read this blog when they are older, will they be able to tell how much I love them?

I am slowly rereading every post that has his name in it. Thankfully, I have mostly been careful. I have deleted a few phrases here and there that might be misunderstood if he read them before he's a father himself. Of the 270 posts I have published so far, exactly 180 (2/3) mention his name, although not all of them are explicitly about him.